Oct

Down 6-1 in the race to 11, it looked fairly bleak for Johnny Archer in his second-round winners’ side match against Dennis Orcollo. But somehow “The Scorpion” dug deep and turned the tables on his opponent, nicking away at Orcollo’s lead. It wasn’t until each player had 9 games that the score was finally tied, and then suddenly Archer surged ahead to take the next two racks and the match to go into the third round still undefeated.

Down 6-1 in the race to 11, it looked fairly bleak for Archer in his second-round winners’ side match against Dennis Orcollo.

Stevie Moore also had a comeback against Bahram Lotfy in the second round, as he found himself with a two-rack deficit at 4-2 Lotfy. But he, too, remained calm and continued to chip away at Lotfy’s lead. He won four racks in a row to bring the score to 6-4 in his favor. At that point, though, Lotfy rallied and took a two-rack lead at 8-6. It was a close match after that, but finally Moore emerged the winner 11-9.

Defending champion Mika Immonen bested Japan’s Kenichi Uchigaki in the second round 11-5 and will next meet “Mad Max” Eberle, who just defeated Danny Olson 11-2. The 2004 champ, Gabe Owen, sent local hope Chris Futrell to the one-loss side 11-4, while Southern threat B.J. Ussery made quick work of Shaun “Get Some” Wilkie, besting him 11-4.

Other former champions still alive are John “Mr. 403” Schmidt, who survived his first-round match against Gregg McAndrews 11-4, and Corey Deuel, who won his first round against Tom Czaplicki 11-1.

The legendary Efren Reyes won his first match Monday, delivering Nick Tafoya west 11-3. Former world champ Ronnie Alcano also is undefeated, having bested Justin Hall 11-6. Warren Kiamco trounced Richard Burns 11-2, Ramil Gallego won over Belinda Beardon-Calhoun 11-7, and Lee Van Corteza also triumphed over Alexander Fitzgerald 11-2. But Edwin Montal suffered a defeat at the hands of Keith Bennett, who won their first-round match 11-9.

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